The sound of bagpipes will resonate downtown this weekend as the St. Augustine Celtic Music & Heritage Festival kicks off on Saturday, bringing authentic Irish and Scottish music, food, spirits, games and more to Francis Field, next to the downtown parking garage.

Also Saturday, the St. Augustine St. Patrick’s Day parade will circumnavigate the historic district with hundreds of jovial, green-clad participants.

Both events are in their second year, and each owes its existence to the efforts of a relative newcomer to the nation’s oldest city.

When John Meehan opened his business, Meehan’s Irish Pub & Seafood House, on the city’s waterfront in early 2010, one of the first things he asked locals was what kind of festivities went on around St. Patrick’s Day.

“Nobody could really tell me much,” Meehan said. “So I asked, ‘Well, when’s the parade?’ They just kind of laughed and said there wasn’t one.”

Meehan said he was surprised to find out that even Jacksonville didn’t have much in the way of festivities or a parade.

“So, I thought, well, we could at least have some kind of block party,” he said. “People told me, ‘You just got here, give it a year.’ So, I started planning.”

Meehan, who is of Irish heritage, also went to work researching whether the Ancient City had any kind of Celtic tie-ins and was surprised to find quite a few. In fact, they trace all the way back to the town’s founder, Pedro Menendez, who was from Aviles, Spain, which is part of a Celtic province of Asturias. The northwestern coast of Spain is thought by some historians to be the homeland of the Celtic peoples of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

“I was one of the first people John talked to about the Celtic roots of St. Augustine,” said Alice Sutherland, owner of the local historic tour company City Walks. “We’d been telling the history of the relationship between the Spanish and the Irish on our tours for about five years. Not a lot of people realize how deeply embedded the Irish were in St. Augustine, almost from the beginning.”

Meehan said he was surprised to learn that the Irish have been in St. Augustine for more than 400 years, having arrived with the earliest Spanish settlers as priests and soldiers. In fact, during the first Spanish period, Father Richard Arthur — also known as Padre Ricardo Artur — presided over the St. Augustine Catholic parish from 1598 until his death in 1606.

Later, Meehan said, the king of Spain hired Irish expatriate soldiers to guard the Castillo de San Marcos fortress, and several of the military governors of Spanish La Florida were Irish officers. Father Michael “Miguel” O’Reilly supervised the construction of St. Augustine’s cathedral from 1793 to its completion in 1797.

“We didn’t expect to find so much Celtic history in what is thought of as a predominantly Spanish town,” Meehan said. “But we were quite excited about it and decided it was a must-do to put together a festival honoring that heritage and educating the public about it.”

Meehan went to work organizing and held the inaugural events in 2011 with the help of the nonprofit organization, Romanza, which promotes and produces performing arts and cultural events that celebrate “the romantic splendor of St. Augustine,” and a lot of volunteers.

“John just took the ball and ran with it,” Sutherland said. “And it was quite successful. I was particularly pleased with it because it had been a secret dream of mine for several years to see a Celtic festival here.”

Meehan said he’s even more excited about this year’s events, which will offer a variety of Celtic foods, Scottish games, singing, plenty of bagpipes and, of course, Irish dancing.

“We are offering a musical lineup that’s second to none,” Meehan said. “We’re bringing in authentic groups all the way from Ireland, such as the Dublin City Ramblers, who were voted Ireland’s No. 1 folk and ballad band. And there will be some rocking stuff, too. Really, there’s a little something for everyone.”

The grand marshal of this year’s parade is Carrie Johnson, a long-time Lincolnville resident who is known to locals as Miss Carrie. She’ll be at the head of the parade, riding her familiar tricycle and waving to the crowd.

“We picked Miss Carrie to be grand marshal because she is the face of St. Augustine,” said Sherri Cunningham, parade coordinator and owner of Ann O’Malley’s Deli & Pub with her husband, John. “She’s one of this city’s most treasured residents.”

John Cunningham also sits on the board of Romanzas. Both Cunninghams have been instrumental in putting together the festival and parade, Meehan said.

The parade begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

“We’ve got 741 people and 55 units lined up for this thing,” Sherri Cunningham said. “And all three Irish pubs in town, Meehan’s, O’Malley’s and the Barley Republic, are actively participating in this event.”

The reasons the whole affair is held a week before the actual St. Patrick’s Day are many, Meehan said.

“It’s a lot easier for all involved to do it the week before,” he said. “And from the outset, we’ve been determined to offer a quality festival with authentic music and entertainment. Many of these performers would be much harder to get next week. Plus, it gives us a whole week to celebrate, rather than just one or two days.”

Cunningham said she expects 5,000 to 7,000 people to attend the festival, which has a reduced price from last year of $5 each day.

“It’s been a lot of work putting this together, and we couldn’t have done it without the help of the more than 100 volunteers we’ve had,” she said. “I’m so excited about this year’s festival and parade, and it’s going to be so much fun.”

Although the festival officially ends on Sunday, Meehan said performances from Celtic musicians will continue at Ann O’Malley’s on Orange Street and at Meehan’s Irish Pub through St. Patrick’s Day.

“Our main mission is to expose people to the Celtic history of St. Augustine as well as offer them high-quality, authentic Celtic music and culture,” Meehan said. “And, of course, to make sure that everybody has a good time.”

Starts Saturday at 10 a.m. at Francis Field and works its way through downtown St. Augustine

The parade route

The St. Augustine Celtic Music & Heritage Festival’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday will disrupt traffic in parts of downtown St. Augustine. The parade is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. and last approximately 90 minutes, according to city officials.

The parade starts at Francis Field and continues south on Riberia Street, east on Orange Street, south on South Castillo Drive and Avenida Menendez, west on Cathedral Place, north on Cordova Street and ends at Francis Field.

Vehicular traffic may want to avoid these areas during this time.

For information, contact the Department of Public Affairs at 825-1004.

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